Elevator pitch: the four-sentence method, with examples
By Léo BarcetPublished Updated 4 min read
The name comes from a precise situation: you meet the right person in an elevator, and you have three floors to make them want to know more. In practice, the elevator pitch is used everywhere: trade shows, networking evenings, the start of a meeting, competitions, and even the question "So, what do you do?" at a dinner.
Its goal is not to say everything. Its goal is to get what comes next: a card, a meeting, an introduction to someone.
The four-sentence method
- Who it is for: the person you help, described concretely.
- The problem: what costs them time, money or energy today.
- Your difference: what you do, and what changes compared with what already exists.
- The ask: what you want from the person in front of you, right now.
That is all. If you can deliver these four sentences in thirty seconds, you have an elevator pitch. Everything else is variation.
Annotated examples
The examples below are fictional: the projects, numbers and results are invented to illustrate the method. In your own pitch, only use numbers you can prove.
Example 1: a start-up at a trade show
"Do you know how much time a nurse loses looking for equipment? In our three pilot wards, close to an hour per shift. We built a tracking system that tells her in two seconds where every pump, wheelchair and monitor is. Those three wards already use it. I'm looking to meet hospital procurement directors: do you know any?"
What works: the opening question, a number that makes a picture, a short proof point, and a specific ask the listener can actually satisfy.
Example 2: a consultant networking
"I help small manufacturers cut their energy bill. On my last audits, the bill dropped by 20% on average, because the contracts had not been renegotiated in years. I run the audit, I renegotiate, and I only get paid on the savings. If you know a plant manager, I'd love an introduction."
What works: the fee model is the difference. The ask is easy to say yes to.
Example 3: a competition application
"In our survey of 200 students, one in three had given up an internship abroad for lack of housing. We built a platform where host companies guarantee the rent, which reassures landlords. In six months, 400 students found housing through us. With this prize, we open three new cities."
What works: every sentence moves the story forward, and the ending ties the ask (the prize) to a concrete consequence.
Five mistakes that make an elevator pitch forgettable
- Jargon. "We provide a SaaS data intelligence solution to optimize..." Nobody remembers that. Talk the way you would explain it to a friend.
- Starting with yourself. Your background can come later. First, the other person's problem.
- Saying everything. Three features, two markets, four numbers: the listener keeps none of them. One number, one image.
- Forgetting the ask. A pitch without an ask is a pleasant conversation that goes nowhere.
- Reciting it. An elevator pitch memorized word for word sounds fake by the second sentence. Learn the four ideas, not the words.
How to work on it
- Write it, then cut everything that is not essential. Aim for 70 to 80 words for thirty seconds.
- Say it out loud twenty times, in different tones: to an investor, to a friend, to a client in a hurry.
- Test it on three people who do not know your project. Ask them to sum it up. Where they get it wrong, your pitch is not clear.
- Adapt the ask to each listener. The first three sentences stay; the fourth changes.
For a longer format in front of investors, see how to make a pitch, step by step. If you want help, the pitch coaching page explains how I work.
To go further, read how to structure an investor pitch and the questions investors ask after a pitch.
